Saturday, June 17, 2006

McDonough grad, father of five, special ed teacher, pharmaceutical sales entrepreneur : BC nominates Martius Harding finalist for the Golden Get In On It Award, bestowed for the most quintessential, well-rounded Bmorean.

Judge Kaye Allison sentenced Mohammed Biglari to life plus twenty years yesterday. On April 26, after his third trial, Biglari was found guilty of murder in the 1991 murder of his Charles Village neighbor, Barbara Halsey.

The death of 36-year-old Said Sawab has been ruled a homicide, #123. And the man shot on Towanda Avenue was identified as Kevin A. Sewell, 20.

Darius Tyrone Jones, 35, who police say tried to run over two officers in his car in Rosedale, was charged with attempted first-degree murder. And Jamaal K. Abeokuto, killer of Marciana Ringo, 8, will be resentenced.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Have you seen this sex offender? If so, do please call 410-838-6600. Thanks.

A 60-year-old man was shot during a showing of X-Men II at the Reisterstown Lowes.

Three more homicides: Trey Branch, 21, was shot on the 2700 Block of East Chase Street; an indentified man was shot on E. Preston Street; an unidentified man on the 2900 block of Towanda Ave. Total killings #122.

Baltimore truck driver Stephen Harlee will be arraigned in Camden County NJ for vehicular homicide in death of Dirk Dudek, 49. Dudek was in a Turnpike Authority truck when a coked-up Harlee hit the guardrail, then rammed his vehicle, fracturing Dudek's spine and setting the pickup on fire.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Fucked. Up. From Dan Ostrovsky in today's Duly Wretched:"Take a deep breath. Have a good day"

Firefighters, police officers, postal inspectors and sheriff's deputies descended upon a room in Baltimore's Courthouse East yesterday, after an employee of the clerk's office discovered white powder inside an envelope addressed to the circuit court. The incident left some courthouse employees uneasy -- not just about the scare, but about the response to it.

"Take a deep breath. Have a good day," was the message written in ballpoint pen on a loose-leaf sheet of paper Francis R. "Frank" Sherry found in a letter-sized envelope. The paper was folded into a square held together with tape, and Sherry said the powder became visible only after he removed the tape. "This white powder fell out on my lap and in my hands," he said. The return address on the envelope indicated it was sent by an inmate at the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center ... A hazmat team determined that the substance was likely foot or baby powder and was not hazardous, according to Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman Kevin Cartwright ... When he found the powder, Sherry notified his colleagues in those divisions, one of whom, Pat Smith, called the sheriff's office ... Sheriff's deputies arrived in about 10 minutes and called the fire department, which responded in another 15 minutes; the hazmat team arrived approximately 15 minutes after that, Gillis said. Margaret Biuk, who works in foreclosures, said Gillis told her to leave the area around 9:20 a.m. -- nearly an hour after the powder was first found. "I didn't like it," Biuk said. "The minute something was found, we should have been evacuated."

Clerk's office employees have been trained for emergencies, but not specifically suspicious powders, Conaway said. That point was underscored by Adonis Johnson of the civil division, who said he found powder in an envelope he opened approximately a month ago. "I threw it away and kept on slicing the mail open," Johnson said yesterday.

A 52-year-old woman was killed on the west side, and yesterday 22-year-old Anthony Hill was shot in the face but survived, bringing the # to 119.

The first-degree murder and attempted murder trial of Corey McMillon, 29, began today before Judge Wanda K. Heard. The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted McMillon September 26, 2005 for first-degree murder and handgun counts for the shooting death of Jamel Jermaine St. Clair, 17 (left). Court documents allege that on April 1, 2005 McMillon approached St. Clair in the 2000 block of East North Avenue and started to go through his pockets. When St. Clair attempted to run, McMillon pulled out a gun and allegedly shot him multiple times. McMillon remains held without bail in the Baltimore City Detention Center. He also faces trial is separate charges of attempted murder and escape.

The evidence shows that on June 12, JZ's Mike Schuh did knowingly commit Gross and Willful fashion violations against the Dignity of the State while riding along on an East Side drug raid; to wit, sterilizingly tight acid-washed jeans, white sneakers, and a dress shirt sandwiched between a beer gut and Kevlar® vest.

Raymond Leemare Burris, a Hampdenizen who'd robbed a lady in the Rotunda parking lot on June 4, and a woman on the 3300 block of N. Charles on June 6, was arrested. Also two stabbings, a shooting, and boys dropping rocks from an overpass.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Judge Wanda K. Heard sentenced Leroy Mayo, 47, of N. Patterson Park Avenue, to 25 years in prison. A city jury convicted Mayo of first-degree assault on February 13 and acquitted him of attempted first and second-degree murder counts. On December 6, 2003, say court docs, Leroy Mayo and his wife, Sherelle, were arguing in their home when he became enraged and took a knife from the kitchen and attacked her. During the attack Sherelle Mayo was stabbed several times.

At a hearing today, Judge Wanda K. Heard sentenced Martinez Brown, 26, to life in prison for the first-degree murder of Kelvin Knight, 18, and an additional 20 years consecutive for use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. A city jury convicted Brown November 3, 2005. Members of Knight's family presented emotional testimony to the court prior to Brown's sentencing. Say court documents,

In the early morning hours of December 7, 2003 the victim, Kelvin Knight, was ordering take-out from New Land Chinese Carry Out at the corner of Montford and Biddle Streets in East Baltimore when he observed Brown arguing with a woman. Upon hearing the victim laugh, Brown turned to the victim and said, "Do you think I am playing?" He then pulled out a handgun, put it to the victim's forehead, and shot him three times in the head and once in the chest. As Brown ran from the scene after the murder, an eyewitness disabled him by striking him with his car, thereby allowing police to arrest him at the scene. Another eyewitness identified him at the scene.

The trial of Cyrus Lee Beads and Joseph Omar Smith starts today. Beads is accused of shooting Lawrence Johnson, 44, Ronald McCutcheon, 19, and Jeremy Drake, 17, on the 3800 block of Roland View Avenue with a 9mm Glock in June 2005. Johnson died of his wounds and McCutcheon was paralyzed. Beads is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and assault and weapons charges.